Piazza Maggiore
Bologna's central square is free to enter 24 hours a day — the only ticket on it is the €10 Clock Tower climb inside Palazzo d'Accursio, with last admission extended to 8:20 p.m. from June through early September.
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Bologna Landmark Visitor Guides: Verified Tickets, Hours & Worth-It Advice (2026)
Visitor guides to Bologna's landmarks — verified 2026 tickets, opening hours, closure days and worth-it advice for the Two Towers, San Luca, Piazza Maggiore and more.
4 min readBy Elena Marchetti
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Bologna's historic center packs a remarkable amount into a compact medieval grid: Europe's oldest university, the world's longest portico, a basilica once planned to out-size St. Peter's, and street after street of UNESCO-listed arcades. This page is the index to our eight Bologna landmark visitor guides — each one built around the details that actually decide a visit: verified 2026 ticket prices, current opening hours and closure days, and honest worth-it advice on what to pay for and what to skip.
The headline pattern in Bologna is how much of the city costs nothing. Piazza Maggiore, the Quadrilatero market lanes, Santo Stefano's Seven Churches complex, the Portico di San Luca and Basilica San Petronio are all free to enter. The paid tickets are few and specific: €12 for a guided visit to the Archiginnasio's wooden Anatomical Theatre, €10 for the Clock Tower climb over Piazza Maggiore, €6 for the Archaeological Museum's Egyptian collection, €5 for San Petronio's Chapel of the Three Kings. A visitor could see every landmark on this page for under €35 in tickets — or nearly all of them for free.
The guides below also flag what has changed, because Bologna has more closure traps than most Italian cities right now. The Two Towers have been shut to climbers since October 2023 with no reopening date announced. San Petronio's panoramic terrace is permanently closed. Santo Stefano closes to tourist visits every Monday, the Archaeological Museum every Tuesday, and the Quadrilatero's market stalls wind down by early afternoon. Each card links to a full guide with the current numbers and the practical sequencing — most of these sites sit within a ten-minute walk of one another, so a single well-ordered day covers the majority.
Bologna landmark guides
Basilica San Petronio
Bologna's vast unfinished-façade basilica is free to walk into daily 10:00–18:00; the one paid stop inside is the €5 Chapel of the Three Kings, and the panoramic terrace some older guides mention has closed permanently.
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Two Towers (Asinelli & Garisenda)
The 498-step Asinelli climb has been closed since October 2023 with no reopening date, and the leaning Garisenda faces a restoration estimated at up to €20 million — but both towers are still free to view from Piazza di Porta Ravegnana.
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Quadrilatero
Bologna's medieval market quarter has no entrance ticket — but the stalls are only in full swing roughly 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and guided tasting tours run about €22–24 per person.
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Santo Stefano (Seven Churches)
The medieval complex locals call the Sette Chiese is free to enter with only a voluntary donation requested — open Tuesday to Sunday roughly 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a midday break, and closed to tourist visits on Mondays.
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Archiginnasio
The 17th-century Anatomical Theatre — a lecture hall carved entirely in wood — costs €12 for a guided tour with mandatory reservations, while the palace's coat-of-arms-lined courtyard and staircase are free, Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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Bologna Archaeological Museum
Home to one of Europe's most important Egyptian antiquities collections, the Museo Civico Archeologico in Palazzo Galvani charges €6 (€4 reduced) — and is closed every Tuesday except public holidays.
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Portico di San Luca
The world's longest continuous portico — 3.8 kilometers and 666 arches — is free to walk around the clock, ending at a hilltop basilica open daily 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.; the San Luca Express tourist train runs about €15 round trip if you'd rather ride.
Visitor guide →Plan your Bologna trip
The landmark guides above cover tickets, hours and the visit itself — for shaping the wider trip, see our Bologna city guides: One Day in Bologna Itinerary for a well-sequenced route through the historic center, Free Things to Do in Bologna to lean into the city's zero-ticket strengths, Hidden Gems in Bologna for what's beyond this page's headline sights, Bologna with Kids for family pacing, Bologna at Night for after-dark plans once the museums close, and Day Trips from Bologna when you're ready to use the city as a rail hub for Emilia-Romagna.
